Becoming an IAS officer is a dream for many. One has to study religiously to crack the UPSC CSE exam, which is conducted in three stages -- prelims, mains and interview. However, there are many civil servants who quit this prestigious job to lead other companies. One such person is RC Bhargava, who is the chairman of Maruti Suzuki India. He was an Indian Administrative Services (IAS) officer. He was a topper of his batch. He cracked UPSC in 1956.
He joined Maruti in 1981 as Director (Marketing). He has been with the company in various roles since then. He is currently leading the largest automobile manufacturer in India as chairman since 2007. The company has a market capitalisation of Rs 2,90,000 crore as of August 29. The share price of the company was Rs 9,622.30 on Tuesday.
Bhargava holds a Master of Sciences in Mathematics from Allahabad University. He also did a Master of Arts in Developmental Economics from Williams College, US. He did his schooling at The Doon School.
After a long career as an IAS officer, he joined Maruti in 1981. Before joining Maruti, he was Director (Commercial) at Bharat Heavy Electricals Limited (BHEL). As an IAS officer, he was Joint Secretary of the Government of India, Ministry of Energy from 1974-77.
He also worked as Joint Secretary, Cabinet Secretariat, Government of India from 1977-78. In 2016, he was awarded the Padma Bhushan, the third-highest civilian award in India.
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